Present
Today, pearl diving has largely been supplanted by cultured pearl farms, which use a process widely popularized and promoted by Japanese entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto. Particles implanted in the oyster encourage the formation of pearls, and allow for more predictable production. Today's pearl industry produces billions of high quality pearls every year. Ama divers still work, primarily now for the tourist industry.
Pearl diving in the Ohio and Tennessee rivers of the United States still exists today. These pearls are called natural pearls, because they are created by nature alone, and are not cultivated by humans. Their shapes are uniquely baroque. Fewer than 1% are found in the classic round shape. They are very rare and are considered collector's items.
Read more about this topic: Pearl Hunting
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“One of the things that is most striking about the young generation is that they never talk about their own futures, there are no futures for this generation, not any of them and so naturally they never think of them. It is very striking, they do not live in the present they just live, as well as they can, and they do not plan. It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for a future, none at all.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest prospects.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)